Poker writing jobs are plentiful enough, but qualified poker writers are scarce indeed. One might think that problem poker writers would fall into one of two categories:

1. Good poker players who can’t write well
2. Good writers who can’t play poker well

But one would be mistaken. The poor poker writers outnumber the poor poker players five to one.

These poker writing articles are intended for use by poker writers who wish to improve their writing skills. They cover a limited number of topics, and they focus  on correcting common writing mistakes.

Sometimes the best poker writers break all the rules. This series of articles isn’t meant for them.

Improve your writing skills, and you’ll get more poker writing jobs, and you’ll be able to charge more per word.

What is Good Poker Writing?

Good poker writing is clear, concise, and definite. Clarity and precision are everything. My poker writing style relies on short sentences and short paragraphs, but other poker writers write long sentences and long paragraphs. Either style is fine if every word, sentence, and paragraph matters. Length is only relevant when it affects clarity.

For example, a PokerStars review might begin with the sentence:

“PokerStars is by far the largest online poker room for both tournament poker and for cash poker.”

Reviews of PokerStars often begin with this factoid, but what does this sentence tell the reader? “Largest” and “by far” are both meaningless in this sentence because they lack context. Good poker writing is specific; it provides details. This sentence is vague and general.

A better opening sentence for a PokerStars review might read:

“PokerStars hosts an average of 25,800 players, which is almost twice as many as its nearest competitor, Full Tilt Poker, which hosts an average of 15,400 players.”

This sentence asserts the same point, but it’s more effective because it establishes details, specifics, and context. The size of an online poker room is measured by the average number of players they host. The comparison with Full Tilt Poker provides specifics and context. Additional sentences  could elaborate on the number of players at PokerStars as compared to other poker sites, or additional sentences could expand on why player volume matters when choosing a poker site. In either case, expanding that sentence into an interesting paragraph would be easy.

Good poker writing is bold and direct. Good poker writers assert opinions. Good poker writers would rather be wrong than indecisive.

Bad poker writing is timid and vague. Bad poker writers express opinions timidly, if at all. Bad poker writers use non-committal words like “maybe”, “rather”, “perhaps”, and “sometimes”.

A poor writer might write the following paragraph:

“The players at Full Tilt Poker are rather weak sometimes. Most of the cash game players aren’t particularly intelligent, and many of the tournament players play with somewhat low skill levels.”

A good poker writer might write the following paragraph instead:

“The players at Full Tilt Poker are fish. The cash game players are stupid, the tournament players incompetent.”

The second writer might be wrong about the caliber of the players at Full Tilt Poker. But whose review would you rather read in its entirety?

More in the Poker Writing Jobs Series

I have plans to include 4 more articles in this series, and I’ll cover some of the following topics:

• Active Voice Versus Passive Voice in Poker Writing
• Common Poker Article Punctuation Mistakes
• Tense in Poker Articles
• Commonly Misused Words and Expressions in Poker Writing

Writing well matters for poker SEO because good poker writing attracts more and better links.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 11th, 2009 at 10:05 pm and is filed under Poker Content . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.